Peter Frampton is currently touring his live extravaganza, Guitar Circus, featuring guests B.B. King, Robert Cray, Sonny Landreth and more. Frampton became a star via Comes Alive, his 1976 double album, and tells TBO.com he still doesn’t understand why live music works so well for him.

“I can’t say why the studio versions of the [Comes Alive] songs that became hits weren’t successful. All I can think of when I hear the recordings from San Francisco venue Winterland is that there is so much passion and energy.

“The funny thing is how it was back then,” Frampton tells TBO.com. “Live albums didn't count as part of your record deal but that particular album turned my career around and I was told that wasn’t part of my deal.”

But Frampton reports he’s now happy playing a tour called Guitar Circus with some stellar talent. “People forget or don’t realize that I was a guitarist first and then I became a singer. I never wanted to become a singer,” he says. “I knew way back when I was no Steve Marriott or Paul Rodgers, but you steal from the best and I stole from Steve Marriott and Peter Wolf. I was a guitarist.”